Don’t manipulate Nunoo-Mensah’s harmless statement – Dr Aning

A security analyst, Dr Kwesi Aning suspects some people are deliberately manipulating the put up or leave the country call on striking workers by Brigadier General Nunoo Mensah to cause disaffection in the country.

Many have criticised the comments by the National Security Advisor. The NPP’s Communications Director, Perry Okudzeto, for instance, condemned the comments and called for the dismissal of the security advisor because, according to him, those comments could have dire security implications for the country.

But security analyst and Head of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr. Kwesi Aning has downplayed suggestions the comments could compromise the security of the nation.

“Some people can decide to tweak the statement by General Nunoo Mensah to serve a particular narrow ends. If we do that, a deliberate manipulation of his words, to create a sense of disrespect and abuse to the workers of this country, then it can be manipulated to generate disaffection and by extension some urban demonstrations which can generate problems.”

He said similar statement by senior security capos serving in government including a series of statements made by General Hamidu about 10 years ago, was regarded by him and other security experts as personal statements without any security implications.

“It is the unfortunate manipulation of those words to create further disaffection that can cause these problems and not the words that were uttered by General Nunoo Mensah himself.”

Meanwhile, Brigadier Nunoo Mensah has told the BBC he would not apologise for the comments.

He has also accused the opposition New Patriotic Party of being behind the ongoing strikes and labour unrests in recent times.

“I have enough experience, working with CIA and other intelligence agencies, to say that NPP is behind these things,” he declared on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem morning show of Tuesday October 22, 2013.